David Schuller schrieb: > <div class="moz-text-flowed" style="font-family: -moz-fixed">On 06/03/10 > 17:08, Edward A. Berry wrote: >> A colleague is interested in purchasing computers for structural biology. >> >> On the CCP4 wiki Kay reports good results with core i7 940 processor >> in Dell desktops. Is i7 still a good choice? is it worth upgrading now >> to i7 960 (3.2 GHz vs 2.66, for + $467) or i7 980 (3.33 ghz and more >> L2 cache for + $999)? >> >> Any particular Dell model, disk configuration? >> >> Any recommendations for a linux NFS and NIS server that would have >> user's home directories and software installs for 20 - 30 linux >> and Mac workstations? In a building with 1GHz network. >> >> Any suggestions, success reports, or horror stories would be appreciated. >> >> Ed >> > Yes, core i7 is still a good choice, but Intel has done some strange > things. They use the "core i7" name for several different sockets. > > Socket LGA 1366 is for servers and a few extreme gaming machines. The > CPUS for 1366 are expensive, and they run hot; most come in at 130 W or > so. The core i7-9xx CPUs you mention above are socket 1366. > > Socket LGA 1156 is for consumer desktops. They are more reasonably > priced, and run cooler. CPUS which fit this socket include "Clarkdale" 2 > core chips and "Lynnfield" 4 core chips. > > Assuming you want a 4 core CPU, these are your choices: > > core i5-750 @2.66 GHz, $200 (core i5 means no hyperthreading) > core i7-860 @2.8 GHz, $279 ***** > core i7-875 @2.93 GHz, $349 > core i7-870 @2.93 GHz, $579 > All of those are rated at 95 Watts, which is much more reasonable. > > These CPUs have "Turbo-Boost" which means that if not all the cores are > in use, and the chip is within its thermal envelope, they can actually > run faster than the listed speed. For example, the core i7-860, rated at > 2.8 GHz, can actually reach 3.46 GHz under the right conditions. > > IMHO, the core i7-860 is the sweet spot for affordable performance. > Within the last 6 months I installed 5 of those with 8 GB RAM each. (You > probably used them on your last visit.) Also, I recommend motherboards > which support the SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0 interfaces. > > I assemble from parts, so I won't comment on pre-assembled products from > Dell or other vendors. > > Both Intel and AMD have some massively-multiple core chips now at 6, 8 > and even 12 cores per CPU. They cost more though. > > > Cheers, >
Ed, for your requirements "a linux NFS and NIS server that would have user's home directories and software installs for 20 - 30 linux and Mac workstations" I would recommend server-grade hardware. You can recognize this: it supports ECC memory. (and you should use ECC memory) Many Dell workstations have server-grade motherboards. If you want/need SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0, then only very recent Intel motherboards seem to provide this with full speed. Don't know if Dell has them. How cool a CPU runs is strongly influenced by BIOS settings. For i* CPUs, you should at least enable "Turbo Boost", "C1E", "Deep C-states" and probably read some specialized articles about this (check out http://www.tomshardware.com/s/reviews/i7-bios/?order=Date ). And have disk controller run in AHCI or RAID mode, not IDE or LEGACY. It's painful that as a crystallographer one sometimes has to turn into a hardware guru. E.g., ECC memory support in Intel CPU/motherboard combos is a science on its own: see http://www.h-online.com/newsticker/news/item/Processor-Whispers-About-Omitted-Features-and-Own-Goals-965540.html HTH, Kay -- Kay Diederichs http://strucbio.biologie.uni-konstanz.de email: [email protected] Tel +49 7531 88 4049 Fax 3183 Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Konstanz, Box M647, D-78457 Konstanz This e-mail is digitally signed. If your e-mail client does not have the necessary capabilities, just ignore the attached signature "smime.p7s".
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